On Friday, May 17th, celebrity chef and food activist Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens, homes, and communities around the world, sparking conversations about real food. It is a day to inspire people to share their food and cooking knowledge and resources to help others take steps toward healthier lifestyles.

The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation is also spreading awareness through many regional efforts throughout the US today, April 10thWhole Foods Market ® (wholefoodsmarket.com) will be sponsoring a Community Giving Day, which will benefit the foundation. All Northern California and Reno stores will be participating!

And from now until the end of April, food action supporters can log onto Prizeo (www.prizeo.com/us) and make a donation for a chance to win a cooking lesson with Jamie Oliver in London, all expenses paid. The campaign has already raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

"Food Revolution Day is all about people power. I was amazed last year when we managed to get over 1,000 events organized across the globe in only a few weeks; but this year, the response has truly been incredible. Food Revolution has reached 75 countries, which shows that the demand for better food education is a global phenomenon," states Jamie Oliver.  "For me, Food Revolution Day is all about building better relationships with great food, and whether that's through hosting a big event like a farmers' market or a small dinner with freshly prepared food, it's all about giving people knowledge and confidence to cook from fresh ingredients and to make better choices about what they feed themselves and their families."

Cook it, share it, live it! The first Food Revolution Day, which united all of Chef Oliver's global charitable work, took place last year with more than 1,000 events in 664 cities across 62 countries. Now is the time for individuals, schools, businesses, and organizations to plan to host and attend activities in their local areas to combat the obesity and health epidemics affecting more than 500 million adults worldwide, but more importantly children:

  • Food and nutrition education is not compulsory in the US, and elementary kids on average get just 3.4 hours a year.
  • This year alone, more than 2.8 million people will die as a result of being obese, while over 2.6 million children will die from malnutrition.
  • There are already more than 43 million overweight or obese children under the age of 5. By 2020, if the current epidemic continues unabated, this will rise to nearly 60 million.

Cooking skills used to be passed down from generation to generation, but now millions of people lack even the most basic cooking skills. Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on the importance of good food and essential cooking skills, by rallying our efforts to empower people with better cooking skills and to inspire them to cook fresh food from scratch.

The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation (JOFF) is a California-based non-profit foundation that works to bring food education to schools, higher standards for school food, truth from food producers, and government action and accountability.

Hands-on events are already being formed in Houston, TX; Cape Coral, FL; Chattanooga, TN; Fort Worth, TX; Boulder, CO; San Francisco, CA; Scottsdale, AZ; and others. Get involved with Food Revolution Day at www.foodrevolutionday.com. Join thousands of supporters on www.facebook.com/FoodRevolutionCommunity and follow the action on Twitter #FoodRevolution.